Samsung Plans Dual-Core Phones, New Tablets in Feb.

Samsung is prepping for major phone and tablet announcements on February 13.

LAS VEGAS  February will be a big month for Samsung's cell phone business, as the company plans to announce both dual-core mobile devices and new tablets at the Mobile World Congress trade show, the president of Samsung's mobile business, JK Shin said at the CES trade show today.

"We will continue to keep our technology leadership this year. In terms of dual-core applications, we already have a program, and next month at Mobile World Congress we will unveil it," Shin said.

Samsung introduced a range of 4G tablets, smartphones and hotspots here at CES, but the company still lacks a tablet running Android 3.0 as well as phones and tablets with dual-core processors, which we're seeing from Motorola, LG and others.

"In February at MWC, we will unveil our next-generation tablet device portfolio in detail," Shin said.

Samsung will have both 3G and 4G tablets in the future, and "we are in a position to supply 4G smartphones and tablets to all the carriers in the US," he said.

New Windows Phone 7 devices, possibly with 4G LTE, may also be announced in February, Shin said.

"We will continue to keep the partnership with Microsoft," he said.

Devices running on 4G networks  both LTE and WiMAX  tablets and smartphones are at the heart of Samsung's mobile growth plans, Shin said.

In terms of 4G standards, Samsung is still betting all sides in the WiMax/LTE debate. WiMax works better for new entrants into the wireless market, and LTE works better for existing carriers upgrading from 3G networks, Samsung's VP of wireless and broadband networks, Tom Jasny said.

That means WiMax and LTE will coexist for at least the next ten years, Shin said.

Samsung is going through a major shift from 3G to 4G and from feature phones to smartphones, Shin said. While Samsung expects to make roughly the same number of phone models in 2011 as the company did last year, the balance will turn towards smartphones, Samsung's executive vice president and head of marketing DJ Lee said. Overall, Samsung expects to sell at least 10% more phones in 2011 than they did this year.

"Feature phones will be decreased and smartphones will be increased," Shin said.

Shin said that he sees much of the low-end of the current laptop market shifting to tablet and convertible-tablet devices.

"This year the tablet market will grow. [On] the high-end PC market, [that] doesn't have any impact, but [on] the netbook market it will have an impact," Shin said.

And some of those tablets may come in new forms, Samsung Mobile's chief strategy officer Omar Khan said.

"You'll definitely see new categories and new form factors, different convergence opportunities in terms of docking, and interoperability with consumer electronics," he said.

My passport is ready, and I'll be reporting from Samsung's MWC press conference in Barcelona on Sunday, February 13. It looks like it's going to be a big one.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed...
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